For more than a thousand years, the Jews of Cairo would preserve every piece of writing that contained Bible verses or references to God. The rationale was that Yahweh’s name is too sacred to be tossed out. These worn-out writings had been faithfully deposited in a genizah, or a synagogue storage chamber. Alongside the expected copies of the Bible, prayer books and works of Jewish law, the casual collection grew with the most mundane documents, such as personal letters, legal and business papers and shopping lists, which offer an intimate portrait of a vibrant Jewish community in the center […]
